Religious Not Spiritual: Recent Episodes
Matt W Cook
Matt Cook is a disillusioned preacher who is still passionate about the religion he doesn't believe in. Join him as he reads through the Bible, and talks about whatever comes up along the way. If you want to hear a former believer read and talk about the Bible, this might be for you.
1980's Christian New Wave by Terre Thaemlitz is licensed under a Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Today we quickly look at two stories where Jesus confronts wealth disparity, and we find our he has some high standards for anyone with money that wants to follow him.
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We consider the role of fasting in maintaining a tradition, the dire importance of allowing our traditions to continually reform, and why people tend to prefer the "old wine" that they have always been used to.
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In this episode I consider a sermon that sent me on the mission field, try to figure out what Jesus means by "Your sins are forgiven," and think about the differences between Peter the fisherman leaving everything to follow Jesus, and Levi the tax-collector leaving everything.
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While reading Luke 5 I talk about the violence of police against racialized people and protestors, and how White people like me often stand in the way of justice. Also, Jesus catches fish and heals a leper.
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In this episode Jesus starts his ministry with a bang. He tries to widen the circle of social acceptance and nearly gets thrown off a cliff, and he spends an all-nighter using his privilege to alleviate the suffering of others. Matt talks a bit about the confort of doing religious things for their own sake, comments on the idolatry of theology, and wonders (again) why Christendom tends to side with the powerful.
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In this episode Jesus is in the wilderness. I think about motivations for spiritual retreat, how an appropriate yoke is probably good for self-regulation, and how humans are not made for religion, but religion is made for humans. Also I consider the dark side of taking the promises of scripture seriously, and suddenly my old missionary work seems a little like throwing oneself off the temple.
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Today we talk about what a gospel is, and how to find one that will lead to a kingdom in which death at 100 is considered young. Also Jesus starts a new relationship with the Holy Spirit, and I say Essene wrong about fifty times.
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Today we continue through Luke. Jesus gets left behind at a festival and John appears in the wilderness like an Essene with a message that is clearly not seeker-sensitive. I also get a chance to criticize Hell again, and I ask why believers tend to not take clear and simple passages like Luke 3:10-14 (or 18:22) more seriously.
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In the first part of chapter 2 we see Luke continuing his project of reversing power structures with a baby in a feeding trough. We also consider how religion is best when it allows itself to die and be reborn as the generations go.
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Today we crack open the Gospel of Luke and read about the people who were involved in the birth of Luke's Christ. A representative of patriarchal spirituality gets struck mute and his elderly wife gets to name their baby. A young woman joins with her to start taking the reigns of a new way of doing old spirituality. And the patriarch only finds his voice when he uses it to confirm what his wife says.
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In this episode, I read the last two chapters of Revelation where an urban paradise descends from the sky like a glorious Borg Cube. I talk about exclusive spirituality, wonder how the Christian idea of heaven compares to Eden, and challenge the idea that belief is a central part of religion.
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In Revelation 19 and 20 we read about the Jesus coming back with a sword flying out of his mouth, a crowd of martyrs finally getting justice, and hell itself being thrown into the Lake of Fire. Matt talks about how Christian myth has changed now that Christendom is the oppressor rather than oppressed, and about how sucky the doctrine of Hell is.
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